The first 3 Mass Effect titles were some of my favorite of the X360 generation. I was never much of a shooter person, but the promise of deep writing and RPG mechanics sucked me in, mixed with the space setting I knew Bioware could knock out of the park based on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. I played all three games in the series at least twice, checking out the alignment options, and seeing how it changed the story. Each time, I very much enjoyed the fleshed-out world, the writing, the great characters, and the variety of things to do, and the permutations of choice.
Enter late 2024/early 2025, and I decided to get back to that N7 grind with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition on Xbox Game Pass. So far I have beaten Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, and I have not been disappointed in going back to these games. ME1 changes the most with the Legendary Edition, introducing a new, streamlined leveling system, cutting the number of levels in half, while ME2 seems largely the same. Honestly I cannot tell if there were a ton of little changes put into the titles, it has been a while since I played the X360 originals. The big change for me this time is how I am roleplaying Shepard. First, I am playing as the female Shepard, who is voiced by Jennifer Hale. While the character model doesn’t look as great as the male character model, the voice is definitely better. Hale is very emotive, doing a great job, especially in the second part of how I am playing the game.
The biggest difference in this playthrough is how I am playing Shepard as a Renegade. Starting in ME1, it is established early that much of the galaxy’s denizens are uneasy with humans, especially how fast they have ascended in galactic culture. I am a life-long fan of Star Trek, so I am always used to embracing multiculturalism in my sci-fi. However, you can play Shepard as a straight-up human-first racist, and yeah it can feel uncomfortable. This is especially due to the fact that you are forced to assemble a crew of different races, and they will occasionally comment on some of the attitudes they experience in the world. While it can be entertaining to play this version of Shepard, this feels like the more contrived personality for the character, at least the full on Xenophobic stuff. I also hoped I would have gotten to see the all-human Council, but no such luck.
The collection is pretty great, showing the evolution in a fantastic game series. I have still never played Mass Effect: Andromeda, but maybe I will carve some time out when I finish the third game, which won’t be happening for a while. Still have so much to play!
Ray Knows Nothing 